Poetry, Music, and Prose

Anna Akhmatova

Alastair wrote a great review of the book, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era. I’m about halfway through – it’s excellent. At any rate, I came across a quote from Anna Akhamatova, whose poetry I recall reading a little of in my 20s. Reading some it now has left me speechless:

“Terror fingers all things in the dark,
Leads moonlight to the axe.
There’s an ominous knock behind the
wall:
A ghost, a thief or a rat…”

“You are no longer among the living,
You cannot rise from the snow.
Twenty-eight bayonets,
Five bullets.
A bitter new shirt
For my beloved I sewed.
The Russian earth loves, loves
Droplets of blood.”

Hi Tom I wrote a long comment on this yesterday, but it doesn’t appear to have posted *sigh*. I will look to read some more of her poetry as I have been mesmerised by her7 portrait exhibited last year at the National Portrait Gallery – Russia and the Arts – The Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky